Monument sights in Moscow
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Tsar Cannon & Bell
North of the bell tower is the 40-tonne Tsar Cannon. It was cast in 1586 by the blacksmith Ivan Chokhov for Fyodor I, whose portrait is on the barrel. Shot has never sullied its 89cm bore - certainly not the cannonballs beside it, which are too big even for this elephantine firearm.
Beside (not inside) the bell tower stands the world's biggest bell, a 202-tonne monster that has never rung. An earlier version, weighing 130 tonnes, fell from its belfry during a fire in 1701 and shattered. Using these remains, the current Tsar Bell was cast in the 1730s for Empress Anna Ivanovna. The bell was cooling off in the foundry casting pit in 1737 when it came into contact with water…
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A
Lenin Funeral Train
Paveletsky vokzal is a hive of activity, with shiny trains chugging to and fro at all hours. The finest loco in the neighbourhood, however, stands idle in an air-conditioned pavilion just east of the station. It is the funeral train that brought Lenin’s body to Moscow from Gorki Leninskie, where he died, in January 1924. The old steam engine is in beautiful condition, but does not attract many visitors these days. In fact, it is technically closed to visitors but the security guard might let you in for a small fee, especially if you show up after hours. From Kozhevnicheskaya ul, cut behind the row of kiosks and through the overgrown park to the pavilion in the back.
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B
Sculpture Park
Behind and beside the New Tretyakov, the wonderful, moody Sculpture Park is Moscow's most atmospheric spot to indulge in some Soviet nostalgia. Formerly called the Park of the Fallen Heroes, it started as a collection of Soviet statues (Stalin, Dzerzhinsky, a selection of Lenins and Brezhnevs) put out to pasture when they were ripped from their pedestals in the post-1991 wave of anti-Soviet feeling.
These discredited icons have now been joined by contemporary work, including an eerie bust of Stalin surrounded by heads representing millions of purge victims.
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C
Memorial to the Victims of Totalitarianism
Stands in the little garden on the southeastern side of the square. This single stone slab comes from the territory of an infamous 1930s labour camp situated on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea.
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